Minchin busy on Groundhog Day play

Tim Minchin has revealed that the Groundhog Day musical is in the works.

Months after dropping hints about his next project, the award-winning Matilda composer confirmed he is writing a score for the stage adaptation of the 1993 cult film, which will be written by the film's scriptwriter Danny Rudin, with Matilda director Matthew Warchus set to direct.

"It seems that our wee secret has leaked: I'm working on a stage musical adaptation of the iconic and brilliant Danny Rubin script, Groundhog Day," he wrote on his blog (Timminchin.com).

Tim said the stage show would be distinctly different from the "true comedy classic", which starred Bill Murray as grumpy weatherman Phil Connors, who relives the same day over and over again after getting stuck in a time-loop.

"Our version of Groundhog Day is going to be both instantly recognisable, and utterly different," he continued, saying: "It would be impossible to try to translate the style and tone of the movie to stage... and even if it were possible, it wouldn't interest me."

The musical comedian added: "I think many of its ideas could be enhanced by the stage. It has the potential to be complex, dark, visually fascinating, and thematically rich, whilst still being a joyous romantic comedy with cool tunes and lots of gags. It's certainly not an easy job, and I'm truly honoured - and genuinely excited - that Danny is letting me have a crack at it."

Tim said development will start later this year.

"We're aiming for a workshop sometime towards summer, and hopefully we'll have it on stage within a couple of years - but who knows? Maybe the whole project will get caught in a temporal vortex and we won't be able to finish writing it until we've achieved wisdom," he joked.